If nothing else, this debut novel is ambitious. The plot shifts between 1950s Hong Kong and the war-racked decade before it, switching periods with each chapter. The novel follows the stories of many characters: socialites, social climbers, colonial well-knowns - almost too many for the reader to keep track of, especially when the central story presents itself with such melodramatic promise.

In 1952, a newly arrived, bored young wife, Claire Pendleton, begins giving piano lessons to the daughter of the wealthy, well-connected Chens; soon after, she begins an affair with seasoned Hong Kong expatriate Will Truesdale.

The elder British lover brings to the dalliance more than enough baggage for two. His clouded background involves trauma from the second world war, most of it a result of his romance with Eurasian socialite Trudy Liang.

As Will and Claire's affair builds in one era, and Will and Trudy's threatens to break under the onset of a war that will change them irrevocably, the novel introduces a secret involving members of the Hong Kong elite, leaders of the Japanese occupation and a priceless collection of Chinese porcelain.

The mess of collaboration politicking during the war and its after-effects ground The Piano Teacher in its socio-historical space; without this welcome weight the story could be any other tale about rich, beautiful people suffering in different places and times.

Though the novel's double romances seem likely to produce a juicy beach-read, neither relationship seems to bear the love or passion necessary to sustain the storyline. What Will believes doomed his affair with Trudy creates a character bent on self-punishment, the plausibility of which is also challenged by the love evinced between the two.

The novel sags under cliches and the two most obvious are the characters of Claire and Trudy. The women are little more than caricatures: Claire embodies the naive English rose and Trudy (privileged and damned because she exemplifies two stereotypes) serves as Asian tomcat and socialite with a heart of gold. Rare moments of genuineness emerge when Trudy drops her playful front. The conflict, however, brings out the best in Lee's writing: her prose, which can elsewhere lapse into indulgence, achieves an honesty in the passages set in the internment camps.

A fundamental problem with The Piano Teacher is that it reads like a novel constructed for certain audiences: Asians who like to read about east-west themes in English-language fiction, non-Asians who think this is perhaps what Asians would read.

The Piano Teacher's cliches and flat, mostly unsympathetic characters leave the reader wanting, resulting in a debut novel written about the effects of desire but strangely lacking in passion.